Charter for Working Group

The Internet Integrated Services design, developed within the IETF byworking groups such as INTSERV and RSVP, specifies extensions to theIP architecture which allow applications to request and receive aspecific level of service from the internetwork, as alternatives tothe current IP best-effort service class. The work of these groups hasresulted in technology-independent protocols and specifications.Focused engineering work to define the mapping of these universalspecifications onto specific subnetwork technologies is now required.

At minimum, the following points must be addressed for each candidatetechnology:

- Service mappings. Service mappings define the way that the link layer technology is used to provide a particular IntServ traffic management service, such as controlled-load or guaranteed-delay.

- Adaptation protocols. Adaptation protocols are used to augment the native capabilities of the link-layer technology, when this is necessary to support required Integrated Services functions.

- Statements of non-applicability. Statements of non-applicability describe which Integrated Service capabilities are not supported by the link layer technology under consideration.

The ISSLL WG will carry out this work for all technologies with perceivedmarket demand and of sufficient interest to its members. To ensure timelyprogress on each work item the WG will employ an administrative structurebased on technology coordinators, as described below. The WG expects tocoordinate its activities across technologies whenever technicalcommonality between layer two media is apparent. The WG chairs holdprimary responsibility for this coordinating role.

WG Outputs:

The WG is expected to produce standards-track RFC's, informational RFC'sand "best-current-practices" guidelines, as required. The need forstandards-track RFC's is limited both because the work of the group isfocused on the engineering of existing protocols to existing link layertechnologies, and because in certain cases information and guidelineswill better serve the needs of a rapidly evolving technology.

Operational Structure:

Due to the scope of the task and the need for parallel progress onmultiple work items, the WG effort is organized as follows:

A technical coordinator will be identified and selected for each mediatechnology adopted as a work item by the group. This person will beresponsible for coordinating the technical efforts of the group withrespect to that media, working with and motivating the documenteditors, and evangelizing the group's work within the community andrelevant external organizations such as the IEEE and ATM Forum.

Since many link layer media continue to evolve, and since that evolutionmay be influenced by the work of the ISSLL WG, it is expected that eachtechnology work item will be divided into short term tasks, medium termtasks, and ongoing monitoring, as follows:

- Short term tasks focus on using the existing technology as bestas possible with no changes whatsoever. This work will accept whateverlimits are imposed the link-level and IP-level technology, with thegoal of creating the best solution possible within a 6-9 month timeframe.

- Medium term tasks focus on planned changes to the technology that arecurrently being standardized and may not yet be widely availableIdeally this work would conclude just as the changes become availablein the market. In general a 1-1.5 year timeframe is appropriate for thesetasks.

- Monitoring focuses on tracking and advising on changes being made byothers to a link layer technology, to allow it to better support theIntegrated Services models and protocols. Generally, these efforts wouldbe conducted as informal activities, rather than work items within the WGstructure. The exception would be when formal cooperation between the WGand an external effort was required.

In addition to the normal responsibilities of IETF working group chairs,the ISSLL chairs hold primary responsibility for selection of coordinators,identifying areas of technical commonality and building cross-technologyefforts within the group.

Relationship to Other Working Groups:

The ISSLL WG maintains a close working relationship with the INTSERVand RSVP WG's. Particularly, ISSLL may wish to feed back informationabout the effectiveness or limitations of RSVP and INTSERV work in thecontext of a specific technology to these groups for review. ISSLL isalso expected to interact with other WG's as needed to aid in the useof particular media (e.g. IPATM, PPPEXT).